Dapper Scout – A lifestyle web magazine for men

We can’t imagine too many scenarios where we couldn’t finish our beer (wine we can understand).  But on the off chance you find yourself in the sort of unfortunate situation where despite its great taste, your beer is too filling, simply pop on one of the six color options of Beer Savers (available at beersavers.com for $8) and your beverage will stay fresh as it chills in your refrigerator.  Each Beer Saver is made of food-safe silicone and is flexible enough to fit most standard beer bottles (you may be on your own though when it comes to that growler or keg you’re trying to keep from going stale).

Eat & Drink, Kitchen

You may not have a sweet tooth, but there’s a strong chance somebody that you know (and perhaps want to impress) does.  And last we checked, summertime means it’s prime ice cream season and while you could run out to the local store and grab a pint, take control over what goes into your next scoop with the Cuisinart Classic Ice Cream Maker (available at Sur La Table for $50).  Without the need for ice, salt (or chemicals for that matter), this fully automatic ice cream maker simply requires a few natural ingredients of your choice and then with just a flip of the switch, you’re just a few minutes away from a home made ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sorbet of your own design.  Available in five colors, the Cuisinart Classic Ice Cream Maker even comes with a matching scooper, something that you and your ice cream-craving guests will appreciate when it’s time to start, well, scooping.

Kitchen, Loft

Beer is good.  Cold beer is better.  So make sure your beer is at its chilled best by pouring your next brew into a PAVINA Beer Glass by BODUM (available at BODUM for $20).  With a 12 oz capacity, each PAVINA Beer Glass is made of heat and scratch resistant glass (Borosilicate) that’s not only stronger than traditional glassware, but also weighs less (not to mention being both dishwasher and microwave safe).  And with its double wall, insulated glass, the PAVINA keeps your beer cold without the mess of condensation or need for a coaster (your coffee table will thank you).

Kitchen, Loft

There’s a certain hazelnut-based spread that the editors at DS used to consume quite frequently (we basically considered it a peanut butter substitute).  But upon further inspection of its nutritional label, we were a little less than enthused to find things like soy lecithin and vegetable oil among its ingredients.  Good thing for us there’s Caramel Cream by Le Caramel (available at Le Caramel for $13).  This caramel cream artfully blends butter, sugar, creme fraiche with just a touch of French sea salt and is cooked in imported French copper kettles, which results in a greater depth of flavor without being cloyingly sweet.  Whether spread on your morning toast, a crepe or even on an apple slice, this caramel cream will add just that right amount of rich sweetness that only a pure caramel can tastefully achieve.

Eat & Drink, Kitchen

While we don’t drink soda these days (see: high fructose corn syrup), we can”t deny there are times when something refreshingly carbonated just does the trick.  With the SodaStream Penguin (available at SodaStream starting from $200), our carbonated urges can be completely satisfied without as much guilt over the health implications and environmental impact as well.  The starter kit includes two 60 liter carbonators and two glass carafes, and with just a few seconds of pushing the carbonation button, you can transform regular tap water (filtered we hope) into either sparkling water as well as soda (using SodaStream’s 30 sodamix flavors or your own personal syrups).  Not only will the SodaStream Penguin save you money in the long run, but it will also give you a little more control over what you’re drinking and help reduce unnecessary waste in the form of soda cans and bottles (and we just dig the overall “penguin” aesthetic).

Eat & Drink, Kitchen, Loft

When it comes to our favorite cold beverages, we appreciate the added chill that only ice cubes can impart.  And with the Iced Caraffe by Officeoriginair (available at FormNation for $28), our drinks stay refreshingly cold from the first pour to the last.  Simply fill the Iced Caraffe with water up to the indication level and place it flat in your freezer.  Once the ice cubes form around the “spine” on the inside of the carafe, just fill it right up again with water (or your drink of choice), and as your drink begins to cool down, the ice cubes will do their job and naturally release from the inside.  Available in a taupe or warm grey color, the Iced Caraffe ensures that every one of your thirst-quenching indulgences will be a frosty one.

Eat & Drink, Kitchen, Loft, Water Bottle

The Dutch may have had a little something to do with the origins of the Dutch oven, but with the Slowcooker by Margriet Foolen (available at Royal VKB for approximately $55), they’ve moved on to one of our favorite means of preparing food: the slow cooker.  The result of Margriet Foolen’s graduation project at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, the Slowcooker is functional simplicity at its best.  Just place your ingredients in the terra cotta/silicone container and set it in the oven.  By cooking/steaming food in its own essence, the Slowcooker ensures that whatever is placed within, will emerge tender, moist, and full of flavor.  It will practically idiot-proof your next foray into the world of gastronomy by doing all the work for you (just make sure to choose your ingredients wisely).

Eat & Drink, Kitchen, Loft

There was a time not so long ago, when the editors at DS were on a strict budget.  That meant a relatively austere lifestyle without some of the things that made life worth even living (e.g. cable TV, beer, movies).  Our dietary restrictions were also pretty much restricted by the lack of any disposable income.  Translation: we ate a lot of sandwiches.  We didn’t even own a toaster, which in hindsight, probably explained why our sandwiches were often so unsatisfactory.  Now that our financial outlook has considerably improved, we’ve had our eye on the BISTRO Toaster by BODUM (available at BODUM for $80)—a two-slice toaster whose construction and features bring a rare combination of distinctive design and a dosage of fun to the kitchen.  With a stainless steel body wrapped in a perforated rubber housing (available in eight colorways), the BISTRO Toaster features 900 watts of power, variable browning and temperature settings, a pop-up rack for keeping bread products warm, adjustable-width slots, removable crumb-tray, and a stable base from which you can adjust cord length as well as store the cord itself.  The BISTRO Toaster has everything you’re looking for: the looks, a personality, and all the charm a kitchen appliance could hope to muster (which in this case, is quite a lot).

Eat & Drink, Kitchen, Loft

We’re all about keeping things as simple as possible, especially around the kitchen.  With our OCD tendencies often at full odds with the chaos we tend to create when preparing food, it’s a constant battle between simultaneously cooking and cleaning that often results in us partially losing our minds by the time the food is ready to eat.  Enter fusionbrands, whose full range of intelligently designed products perfectly represent their mission to make things “easier, faster and more pleasurable” in the kitchen (and beyond).

fusionbrands iceorb (available at fusionbrands for $16): as the most versatile ice tray we’ve ever seen, the iceorb does so much more than just make ice cubes.  Not only does it produce 21 ice cubes on its vertical wall, but it also stores up to 51 ice cubes in an airtight and odor-free manner, while able to chill bottled beverages as well as keep foods cold when used as a serving container. With a spill-proof design that’s dishwasher safe, the iceorb is also incredibly easy to use and clean—attributes we certainly don’t take for granted.

fusionbrands foodpod (available at fusionbrands for $15): made of FDA/EU food-safe silicone and BPA-free nylon, the foodpod is the ideal way of boiling/blanching/steaming food, whether it’s eggs, vegetables, or even shellfish.  The flexible non-stick silicone allows the foodpod to fit in virtually any pot without damaging the food contained and the grip clip lets you easily remove it from pots, letting water quickly drain away.  We can’t imagine a more intuitive way to hold, cook and then transport your food when you’ve got boiling water in the picture.

DS Recommends, Kitchen, Loft

While we can’t imagine our lives without purified water, the one thing we can live without is the constant filter replacement that’s necessary every few months (and the plastic waste from the filters themselves certainly doesn’t help matters either).  With the Charcoal Water Pitcher (available at Design Within Reach for $85), water is purified using Iouseki stones (from the mountains of Kanazawa on the coast of the Sea of Japan) and Binchotan charcoal that’s been adapted for potable water use.  The result is an environmentally-friendly water filtration system with an appealingly sleek aesthetic that not only purifies water, but also leaves it odor-free and enriched with minerals.  And as the charcoal and stones themselves last approximately six months, you won’t have to replace them as often as traditional filters, and when disposed of, won’t languish in landfills taking eons to decompose.

Going green, Kitchen, Loft